Subject: Re: SPARCstation 2 boot options
To: None <port-sparc@netbsd.org>
From: Andy Ball <ball@cyberspace.org>
List: port-sparc
Date: 02/01/2002 02:12:06
Hello Mouse (Maus? ;-)

  dM> I have a 2 that I'm presently running diskless, and
    > while in my case the server is NetBSD/sparc rather
    > than NetBSD/i386, I wouldn't expect any trouble.

If I manage to to bring this machine up (and what I've read
here has been encouraging), it should become my main NetBSD
box (at home), at least for a while.  Amongst other things,
that would make it the machine that new machines boot from
(if I can wrap my head around NFS etc.)

  dM> I've booted Suns from floppies only occasionally; a
    > new install is usually either a netboot or put the
    > disk on an existing machine and set it up there.  If
    > it really matters, I can check out my ROM rev and try
    > booting from floppy, but I'd be surprised if it didn't
    > work.

The offer's appreciated.  Even if all goes well it'll be a
while before the machine arrives.  I'll try it then.  I'm
bound to show up here to ask more questions and discuss my
results.  Thinking about it, I should document what I do so
that I've got something to refer to next time.

  dM> I think the 2 has recent enough ROMs that "boot
    > floppy" should work.

Thanks.

  dM> Do you know what sort of framebuffer?  I'm looking for
    > a 24bpp SBus framebuffer to work on Xsun24 with....

Does TurboSunGX mean anything to you?  I'm unfamiliar with
SBus framebuffers.

  dM> Many?  All Sun-3 systems, I think.  I can't think of
    > anything older than about a Classic or a 10 that has
    > twisted pair builtin.

I like to leave room for people to prove me wrong, and I've
not seen all the Sun-3 machines ;-)

  dM> My 2 has AUI, certainly.  I'm told 10baseT
    > transceivers are quite cheap these days, something
    > like $2 apiece - I imagine because everybody wants
    > 100baseTX these days.

If you mean here on the list, I think Don Y. was talking
about 10base2 transceivers.  I don't have anything against
10base2 (my LAN back in Britain was 10base2), but over here
I've used 10baseT. Perhaps it's time for me to add a 10base2
though (as a radio amateur, I can probably find a use for
any left over RG58 co-ax :-)

  dM> Or an external case and a SCSI cable.

That's something I'll give serious thought to, especially
since I probably have access to some spare SCSI drives that
wouldn't fit in the case.  It would also make sense for me
to put removable drives on my desk, where they're easy to
get at.  Hmm...

  dM> I have a SPARCserver 470, one of the big VME machines,
    > that isn't any too fast either.

I've never seen one of those. Is it in a similar case to the
3/470?

  dM> But I've got some 68k machines...and the slowest one I
    > have is a MicroVAX-II running diskless...

(I'm watching a PDP-11/23 on eBay, but that's off-topic ;-)

Regards,
  - Andy Ball.